Hall of Famers on Riley Cooper: Forgive, don't forget

Aug. 2, 2013
|

Cris Carter, shown after his selection as a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, says a teammate using a slur like Eagles receiver Riley Cooper would have caused problems in Carter's playing days, too. / Gerald Herbert, AP

by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

by Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports

CANTON, Ohio -- Cris Carter isn't sure exactly how he would have handled the type of crisis that has erupted this week with the Philadelphia Eagles after a video surfaced showing receiver Riley Cooper yelling a racial slur. But the Hall of Fame receiver knows it would have been a serious problem.

"I'm all about the team, but every business has things that you don't do," Carter said Friday during a press session for the newest class for Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I'd have the same problem if an African-American said something in the same vein to a Caucasian, or to someone from another ethnic group. I'd have a problem with that, too."

The Cooper situation elicited strong reaction from several African-American Hall of Famers, who underscored the threat to the team's chemistry.

"I've always said there's a time and place for everybody on the team to know their place," said Warren Sapp, who joins Carter in a group of seven to be enshrined on Saturday night.

"It wasn't in the team setting (when a belligerent Cooper was captured on video while attending a concert), but you still have to know your place. You still have to go back to that locker room. That's really, really tough."

Added James Lofton, "You don't forget, but you do try to forgive. That may be a lesson that's going to be paramount for the Eagles to learn this year. That forgiveness. For someone to say, 'I'm sorry,' but to accept them back in. That's going to be tough."

Cooper was fined an undisclosed amount by the Eagles, and left the team Friday to begin sensitivity training. Although several teammates, most notably quarterback Michael Vick, have publicly declared support and forgiveness for Cooper, others have expressed reservations.

The Hall of Famers can relate to the test of team chemistry the Eagles face.

"Football is a game of trust," Carter said. "This is a game where you can get hurt bad if a guy doesn't do his job. I'm concerned about that trust factor. And I'm more concerned that the defensive players won't be as forgiving as the offensive players, because that's the way it normally works. I'll be (saying) on offense, 'Me and Riley are cool,' but the guy playing corner, I can't make him cool with the same situation.

"It would be like Michael Vick, when he went through his situation. You can't ration that out to your teammates. 'Oh, he's a good guy.' But he did that."

Carter wasn't convinced by Cooper's explanation that he had never used the slur before the concert at Lincoln Financial Field in June, fueled by an altercation with a security guard. Cooper also admitted that he had been drinking that night.

"He's been playing with blacks his whole life," Carter said. "So, my thing would be typically that if there's smoke from the wood pile, something in the wood pile ain't clean. I'd like to check into his history, to see if there's been any other episodes before that.

"I've been in a lot of situations, and that doesn't slip out of someone's mouth. That's not a slip."

Lofton believes the Eagles can get beyond the issue, with strong locker room leadership. Friction, he pointed out, isn't new in the NFL. He recalled cases during his career where players fought, front office members bickered over draft picks and assistant coaches even got into fisticuffs.

"It has to go beyond the head coach, and now it has to go to the players taking that leadership and being honest about it," Lofton said. "It's not the first time that word has been uttered, and it's not the last time. Was it fueled by too many cocktails? We don't know the whole story.

"Can you forgive him? Yes. But you never forget."

Sapp said the slur itself wasn't the biggest problem. It was the context of how the slur was used.

During his years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sapp said that he and defensive tackle Brad Culpepper often injected race during spirited locker room exchanges -- but maintains that it was never an issue.

Sapp said that he called his linemate, "Whitey," while Culpepper in turn called him, "Colored."

"We played that black-white game," Sapp said. "But when you do it in a loving mannerâ?¦you can call me the n-word, but it's got to be in the right context. Like, 'What's up, brother?' "

Sapp said some Jewish friends from college gave him a nickname, and it never offended him -- "Saperstein."

"See, I'm Jewish, too," Sapp said, drawing laughter from a group of reporters.

After a few minutes, though, Sapp tired of talking about Cooper. He realizes that for the Eagles, this crisis is no laughing matter. He isn't sure how he would have addressed it, had such an issue surfaced on one of his teams.

Yet Sapp thinks he has a sense of how this hits home with the ostracized Cooper.